BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. — A Fairhope man is recovering after a single-vessel boating crash left him stranded in the waters of south Mobile County for roughly four hours before rescuers pulled him to safety.
According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, 53-year-old Kevin Olmstead was operating a center-console vessel that crashed at about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 21. Marine Patrol troopers later found the boat grounded and unoccupied — and taking on water — in Portersville Bay near Bayou La Batre.
Four-hour search ends at a channel marker
Troopers with ALEA’s Marine Patrol Division launched an immediate search for the missing boater. At approximately 7:30 p.m., troopers working alongside a Good Samaritan spotted Olmstead clinging to Channel Marker 34 in the Intracoastal Waterway.
A rescue swimmer with the U.S. Coast Guard provided first aid as Olmstead was carried back to shore aboard a Marine Patrol vessel. Once ashore, he was airlifted to University Hospital in Mobile, where he was treated for signs and symptoms of hypothermia.
Several agencies assisted in the search, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Alabama Marine Resources, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Flotilla, and Daphne Search and Rescue. ALEA’s Marine Patrol continued investigating the cause of the crash.